Morning journal and courier., 1887-12-24

it entire and make the application: 1 OPIUM
 "The views of this paper on the opium | question are well known to those who have l been it's regular readers for the past twelve | months. We see reason for modifying l the views frequently advanced in our edito- | rial columns prior to the passage of the act | legalizing the sale of opium in this king | dom. We are quite aware that plausible ar guments may be and have been adduced on | the other side, but their weight is much lighter than those in opposition. We hold that opium is evil, an un- mixed evil without one redeeming fea- ture. And if so, intelligent and just legislation can no more tolerate it than it can tolerate murder. The argument that be- cause it cannot be cured it should be regu- lated by law might be applied to the crime of murder with as much reason and force. But who says that because murder cannot be
 entirely prevented by law 1t should therefore be made legal within certain prescribed Hm-
 itsl Respecting the question of revenue, we
 cannot admit that government is justified
 in resorting to iilegitimate means for the
 purpose of procuring money, however much
 it may be needed. Then that pet argument
 of opium advocates, that licensing the drug
 puts an end to smuggling, is so fallacious
 that one wonders they do not drop it.
 "Only the other day big seizure of snug-
 gled opium was made here in Honolulu and
 yet it's sale is licensed. The higher the cost
 of that license the higher the selling price
 must be for the licensed article, and it fol- lows that the greater will be the temptation
 to smuggle and sell illicitly. The man who imports legally and sells under high license can always be undersold by the smuggler and illicit seller"
 Now for the application to the trade in liquor in this town. Within ten days city paper quotes 8 large wholesale and retail
 T l,,A{s s-sL retailers of liquor in this city and he knows it because he furnishes it to them at whole sale.' Does he dare to make complaint and have them prosecuted? Certainly not; and why Because, as one of the most respect able saloon keepers Of my acquaintance said to me. "We must every one of us violate the license law seven days in the week in order to make living and pay for our license." When asked if he thought that was a good business which must be carried on in viola | tion of law continually, he laughed at the | seeming innocence behind such question and further admitted that "the sale of liquor l in this city increased tenfold in the first ten | years after the license law was passed, ," while | everyone knows that crime and pauperism | here in the sams years at a ratio | entirely out of proportion to the increase of population.
 We contend that the whole traffic in in- toxicating drink by saloon keepers and at Iawless and demoralizing to those who so sell as those who drink. And paying high price for the license neither brings better class of men into the business nor improves the morals @ of those who are already in it. If the license was put at $2, 900 in New Ha- ] yen the man who sells the vilest liquor and l makes the most money by it would continue Q have his two, three or four licenses and 'ell the internal mixture of his own concoct- ng with the same disregard of the restric- ions of law as at present, and the respecta- ole law abiding citizen who shall attempt to compete with him would sink his character md capital at the same time.
 PRoHIRITToNIsT FROM AWAY BACK.